Replacement coolant? Prestone ok?

[Boxxy]

I may need to replace my water pump. I understand this will result in some loss of coolant. Porsche states that coolant need never be replaced and so one course of action is to catch the coolant that will run out and pour it back into the system.

On the other hand, I have some Prestone DEX-Cool stuff I bought at Walmart lying around (the Dex-cool is the more expensive stuff that supposedly is better for the aluminum radiators and is recommended by GM; whatever, I fell for it being only $5 more expensive than the common yellow jug Prestone.) '

Should I drain the rest of the OEM fill coolant and replace it with the Prestone Dex-cool? It's a new-to-me 02 and thus has been in service for close to 8 years. Other than this Porsche recommendation of never changing coolant, for the rest of my cars, 7-8 years of service would have seen at least 1 if not 2 coolant changes for any of them.

[1schoir]

I may need to replace my water pump. I understand this will result in some loss of coolant. Porsche states that coolant need never be replaced and so one course of action is to catch the coolant that will run out and pour it back into the system.

On the other hand, I have some Prestone DEX-Cool stuff I bought at Walmart lying around (the Dex-cool is the more expensive stuff that supposedly is better for the aluminum radiators and is recommended by GM; whatever, I fell for it being only $5 more expensive than the common yellow jug Prestone.) '

Should I drain the rest of the OEM fill coolant and replace it with the Prestone Dex-cool? It's a new-to-me 02 and thus has been in service for close to 8 years. Other than this Porsche recommendation of never changing coolant, for the rest of my cars, 7-8 years of service would have seen at least 1 if not 2 coolant changes for any of them.

Boxxy:

The question of whether one can use anything other than the magical Porsche coolant is an often debated topic. No definitive answers AFAIK because Porsche won't give up its secret, that would hurt one of their "profit centers". It is obvious that Porsche does not manufacture its own coolant, so there must be an identical coolant in another brand. The trick is to determine which one that is. Do a search here and you'll get lots of info and opinions. IMO there is no such thing as "lifetime" coolant, that is marketing hype to foster the perception of low maintenance.

Two things are known for sure:

1. Some coolant brands do not mix well with others and can cause gelling, which turns into a big $$ problem.

2. Bleeding all of the air out of the system is difficult (but not impossible) without a vacuum creating device such as a Ulift by UView.

Regards, Maurice.

[phillipj]

Get the G 12 coolant from Audi. It's the same as the Porsche but it's only $20 a gallon. Porsche is about $80.(go figure.)

[kbrandsma]

Just ordered some from Sunset Porsches in Portland, Or. Under $30.00 gallon.